Strange Waters: Churches and Masses

As is to be expected when living with a religious community, much of our community time is focused around mass and prayer. We pray at the beginning and end of every class (which has the added benefit of helping our students practice their impromptu speaking and prayer skills), at the beginning and end of every meal, and the seminarians do evening prayer together every day at 6p. We attended evening prayer once, but its all in Vietnamese, so we had trouble following along. It is pretty to listen to however, because the Spiritans chant the psalms instead of saying them, and Vietnamese is tonal, so it lends itself well to chant. We often listen from downstairs as they do evening prayer in the chapel.

The students (and many Catholic Vietnamese) attend mass every weekday at 5am. We have not yet braved the early morning to experience that, but we have attended mass in Vietnamese. The priests that live in our house additionally say mass together at 7:30 on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. On Saturdays we often attend mass at the pastoral center, which is run by the archdiocese and is located on the grounds of the rectory where the bishop lives. They host a 5:30 vigil mass in English that is well attended by the international community in Saigon. The seminarians also often attend this mass as a way to practice their English. If we are unable to attend mass on Saturday evening we go to the Dominican church nearby which has a 10am Sunday mass in English. It's not as well attended as some of the other English mass, drawing only about 100 people.

The regular Vietnamese masses on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings and evenings draw huge crowds, we guesstimate at least 500 people, as the whole church is full, the entirety of the courtyards are full, and many people have to stand in the street outside the gates of the church. The churches have loudspeakers and screens outside of the church building to allow for better participation.

The highlight of our community's week, mass wise, however is on Friday night. One of the father's says mass in the chapel at the top of the house where the seminarians live, and afterwards we have a dinner cooked by our local benefactors. The whole of the community attends, from the various locations across Saigon, and dinner is a fancier affair - last week we had spaghetti! Its a time for the whole community to gather and to welcome new and old members of the community as they pass through Saigon.